water-access

Chelsea, Que. is cracking down on wayward docks along the Gatineau River. The municipality, which is a half hour drive north of Ottawa, announced that it would be introducing a new bylaw for private docks on municipal land starting April 15, with three different scenarios for dock owners.

The Gatineau River, which runs 386 kilometres from northern Quebec down to Gatineau, borders the east side of Chelsea. Hydro-Québec owned much of the land along the river near Chelsea until January 2020 when the municipality purchased 1.89 million square metres of waterfront property from the power company for $47,426.

“Hydro-Québec didn’t really manage or care about shoreline usage,” says Rita Jain, the municipal councillor for Chelsea’s river ward. “So, there were things, like docks, permitted that wouldn’t be now…It’s a tradition that’s been going on for many, many decades.”

The new bylaw’s three scenarios for dock owners cover the different categories of docks in the area. The first two scenarios involve owners whose properties are divided from their docks by Voie Verte, a biking and walking trail that runs along the river, or Chemin de la Rivière, a municipal road that runs along the river. These owners will have to apply for a dock permit—costing around $400 annually. If the dock meets the criteria of being connected to a private property, the owners will be allowed to keep it.

The third scenario is dock owners who don’t own adjacent property. These include “road docks,” a dock that’s been installed by a private citizen or community group that serves a personal use. These docks were put in under Hydro-Québec’s lax stewardship, with some having been in place for upwards of 40 years. However, since these docks don’t correspond to a property, the Chelsea council has determined that they must be removed or converted into municipal docks managed by the town and open to all residents of Chelsea.

The municipality will conduct an analysis of these docks and determine whether they’re fit to be converted into municipal docks. Staff will ensure eligible docks don’t impact the surrounding ecosystem, don’t infringe on nearby private properties, and are safe to use. Docks that don’t meet the criteria will be removed by the municipality or the owners.

“It’s a way of life here,” Jain says. “People have moved here because of the river and some families have been here for multiple decades, multiple generations even. To be told that they can’t have their dock is devastating.”

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During a council meeting on December 6, Jain proposed an amendment to the dock bylaw that would allow nine “road docks” to remain private. She estimated that approximately 300 community members used these docks and would be losing private access to the river. But council voted against her with mayor Pierre Guénard saying that the council had to serve all Chelsea residents, not just a specific few.

As part of roadwork being done along Chemin de la Rivière, a number of docks have already received notices saying they must be removed to make room for construction. Jain says many of these docks won’t be put back in in the spring because they won’t qualify for a permit.

The roadwork includes a new guardrail along the river to make the road safer. Initially, the municipality said it was going to charge residents with private docks $6,000 each to cut access points in the guardrail. However, after a February 20 meeting, the municipality has agreed to cut access points for free as long as the dock qualifies for a permit.

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The municipality’s plan for its new dock bylaw will roll out over the next five years. In spring 2023, Chelsea will conduct a shoreline inspection of private land. In summer 2024, it will conduct a shoreline inspection of municipal land, including private docks. Over the winter of 2025-2026, council will determine which private docks will become municipal docks. And in summer 2027, the municipality will remove any unlicensed docks on municipal land.

Chelsea says it won’t accept permit applications until it’s completed its analysis and inventory of existing docks.

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Canadians are proud of the Great Lakes, and for good reason—they supply two large countries with a lot of fresh drinking water, support irrigation and other agricultural activities, and are crucial in shipping and transportation in the area. Plus, they’re great for sailing, swimming and watching the sunset.

“Lakes are great indicators of what’s going on in the watershed,” says Sapna Sharma, an associate aquatic ecology and limnology professor at York University. “They give a good idea of what environmental degradation may be happening on land.”

A new study published in Bioscience looks at decades of lake research to understand how climate change is affecting lakes around the world, like Canada’s Great Lakes, which hold more than 20 per cent of the planet’s freshwater. Sharma, a key author in the study, explains what it all means.

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Shorter ice seasons

“What we’re seeing in recent decades,” Sharma says, “is the decrease in the extent of ice cover.” Northern Hemisphere lakes are experiencing shorter winters and shortened frozen lake periods. Researchers estimate that nearly 15,000 lakes in the north that traditionally froze yearly, including the Great Lakes, are now going ice-free.

Since 1997, there have been four or five ice-free years. “When we go back to our records from 1857, this has never happened before,” says Sharma.

A 2015 study on lake temperature shows that almost 90 per cent of lakes are warming. And the 10 per cent that are not warming are cooling because of glacial ice melt or water clarity change.

“Ice acts like a lid on the lake in the winter,” Sharma explains. “When you remove that lid, there’s more freshwater evaporating.”

By the end of this century, the study reports the average annual lake evaporation is expected to increase by 16 per cent globally. Changes in ice cover, ice thickness, and snow cover are amplified in the Canadian Arctic where there are 24-hour-daylight summers.

How will the Great Lakes region be affected by climate change?

Warming waters

Winter evaporation directly decreases freshwater supply and warms water temperatures. This impacts food chains and helps invasive species spread. Warmer lakes favour nonnative, predator fish like the smallmouth bass, squeezing native fish out of the water.

Warm water also supports increased algae production. Eutrophication—a bloom of plant growth due to an excess of nutrients caused by sunlight, fertilizer, or even intense rainfall—becomes more common too. In Ontario’s Grand River Watershed, a historic rainfall increased the presence of fertilizing phosphorus and catapulted an unseasonably early bloom season.

There are reports of more common and later blooms happening throughout Ontario. Algonquin Provincial Park’s Dickson Lake experienced a toxic bloom that led the park to pause overnight camping permits in 2015. These blooms are a top cause of poor water quality affecting fish and birds on a wide scale and pose serious threats to livestock, pets, and humans.

A lot of the changes can’t be seen by the eye, says Sharma. “You can’t tell that the water temperatures are warmer. You can’t tell that fish populations are stressed as you’re walking along the shoreline,” she says. “Things are bad when you can start observing water quality degradation by eye.”

Look for murky or green water and algal scum. Or, take a whiff. Degraded water quality definitely has a smell.

Water access for all

“There’s a huge inequity issue,” Sharma says. “There are boiling water advisories on Indigenous reserves, right next to other towns that don’t [have advisories]…it’s just going to get worse with climate change as water quality is expected to degrade further.”

There is a ton of work happening in Africa, Asia, and South America that Canada can look to when it comes to the future of our lakes. “We need to start bridging those gaps. We need to recognize how their lakes are changing,” Sharma says, calling the science community to approach freshwater research more inclusively.

“Our field, and accessibility to water, will only improve,” she says.